HBO MAX coming to NZ .- Sky to drop HBO Max content from June

Forums › Online streaming services › HBO MAX coming to NZ .- Sky to drop HBO Max content from June

1 | 2 | 3

rb99

3505 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1830

Lifetime subscriber

#3462637 18-Feb-2026 14:28

JPNZ:

In a chaotic streaming landscape, finally being forced to care about profit might be the most valuable position of all."

Personally I'd have thought that should read 'finally being forced to care about the customer might be the most valuable position of all'.

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

gzt

18679 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 7809

Lifetime subscriber

#3462672 18-Feb-2026 15:18

JPNZ: Interesting thoughts from NZH Today, which I'm not going to copy and paste all of it but basically SKY UK are offering a streaming bundle featuring Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix and Hayu (a reality TV platform available here for NZ$9.99 a month) in a single Sky TV subscription, starting at £24 (NZ54.20) a month for a two-year fixed-term contract.

That does not sound like great value depending on what else comes with it. Sky have some advantage being a high price service they are in a good position to clip the ticket on incremental additions.

Amazon Prime Video do a better job of streaming service aggregation offering Apple and the rest. As I understand it you can start and stop those sub services anytime, but you must maintain an active prime video subscription. That's not something I feel a need for at the moment, and the fam is stuck to Netflix, darn it.

nitro

757 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 335

#3462686 18-Feb-2026 16:30

gzt:
JPNZ: Interesting thoughts from NZH Today, which I'm not going to copy and paste all of it but basically SKY UK are offering a streaming bundle featuring Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix and Hayu (a reality TV platform available here for NZ$9.99 a month) in a single Sky TV subscription, starting at £24 (NZ54.20) a month for a two-year fixed-term contract.

That does not sound like great value depending on what else comes with it. Sky have some advantage being a high price service they are in a good position to clip the ticket on incremental additions.

Sky UK's offer coming with a 2-year contract would also take a hit from disney doing a pay 10-months for 12-months of service. of course, a standalone disney subscription price can increase for the following year... but so can sky tv.

loceff13

1089 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 340

#3462782 18-Feb-2026 20:34

Also the Sky UK offer is the ad versions of the services(netflix, disney+, hbo max) and limits of 2 devices per account etc.

tstone

405 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 94

#3462996 19-Feb-2026 11:25

Currently, on my Sky subscription, you can navigate to the HBO channel and get most of what is also available on Neon. I don't know what's going to happen to this, it sounds like that will disappear. However I'm surprised that people are talking about Neon in this topic as if that's currently the only place to get that stuff.

Jas777

840 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 111

#3463049 19-Feb-2026 14:04

Got to say if you look at the HBO channel on SKY you might get 1 'new' show maybe 2 a week to watch (depending on genre you like) , otherwise it is mostly just their back catalogue.

Can see why SKY is not renewing if it cost a certain amount and not many watch it.

Looking at a streaming service got to think it would be 2 - 3 months a year to watch all you need and then ditch it until need again.

Can see the case where a streaming service brings in not much more revenue then guaranteed SKY money. Would of thought reduce cost to SKY ang have a streaming service also might maximise revenue more??

Dyson

Shop now for Dyson appliances (affiliate link).

dougierydal

339 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 127

#3463060 19-Feb-2026 14:25

JPNZ:

MikeAqua:

I'm only really interest in Otago or ABs rugby, and international cricket

How do you watch those things currently?

IPTV probably, that's what I use...it's perfect and cheap for live sport, not good for on demand/catch up

MikeAqua

8024 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3817

#3463063 19-Feb-2026 14:53

JPNZ:

How do you watch those things currently?

Go to a mate's houses or the pub. Or just watch delayed highlights on YT.

Mike

larknz

1976 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 382

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3463069 19-Feb-2026 15:02

Don't imagine that Sky prices will come down. I've just been notified that Sky Sport is increasing in price.

amfek

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3466408 3-Mar-2026 13:58

Presumably Paramount buying Discovery and merging HBO Max into Paramount+ kills the NZ expansion, right? If that's the case then Sky really is the Michael Jordan of squeaking in right at the last possible nanosecond and doing the absolute barest minimum to keep people roped in.

wellygary

8810 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5287

#3466411 3-Mar-2026 14:13

amfek:

Presumably Paramount buying Discovery and merging HBO Max into Paramount+ kills the NZ expansion, right? If that's the case then Sky really is the Michael Jordan of squeaking in right at the last possible nanosecond and doing the absolute barest minimum to keep people roped in.

I doubt it,

Sky chose to let its HBO contract lapse, -That content is likely gone for all money....

The deal at the company level has still got to get through a bunch of regulators, so I doubt you will see its impact here next week, and I think HBO Max will still roll out here,

Currently there is no Paramount+ in NZ (yet) but if HBO max is globally folded into P+ they may see this as a reason to bolt us onto Australia's P+ service and offer P+ here, -which still means no HBO content for Sky...

Dyson

Shop now for Dyson appliances (affiliate link).

Handsomedan

7769 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 7402

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#3466465 3-Mar-2026 14:39

wellygary:

amfek:

Presumably Paramount buying Discovery and merging HBO Max into Paramount+ kills the NZ expansion, right? If that's the case then Sky really is the Michael Jordan of squeaking in right at the last possible nanosecond and doing the absolute barest minimum to keep people roped in.

I doubt it,

Sky chose to let its HBO contract lapse, -That content is likely gone for all money....

The deal at the company level has still got to get through a bunch of regulators, so I doubt you will see its impact here next week, and I think HBO Max will still roll out here,

Currently there is no Paramount+ in NZ (yet) but if HBO max is globally folded into P+ they may see this as a reason to bolt us onto Australia's P+ service and offer P+ here, -which still means no HBO content for Sky...

If P+ comes here, that could be all sorts of bad for Sky TV.
They have sport as well as general entertainment.

Tick, Tick, Tick.

Handsome Dan Has Spoken.
Handsome Dan needs to stop adding three dots to every sentence...

Handsome Dan does not currently have a side hustle as the mascot for Yale

*Gladly accepting donations...

JPNZ

1715 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 840

#3466466 3-Mar-2026 14:44

Handsomedan:
If P+ comes here, that could be all sorts of bad for Sky TV.
They have sport as well as general entertainment.

Tick, Tick, Tick.

Worse for TVNZ+ which has a LOT of the current sports P+ has.

Panasonic 65GZ1000, Onkyo RZ730, Atmos 5.1.2, AppleTV 4K, Nest Mini's, PS5, PS3, MacbookPro, iPad Pro, Apple watch SE2, iPhone 15+

Handsomedan

7769 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 7402

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#3466479 3-Mar-2026 15:25

JPNZ:

Handsomedan:
If P+ comes here, that could be all sorts of bad for Sky TV.
They have sport as well as general entertainment.

Tick, Tick, Tick.

Worse for TVNZ+ which has a LOT of the current sports P+ has.

True! They also have a lot of "on demand" TV programming that is from P+.

Handsome Dan Has Spoken.
Handsome Dan needs to stop adding three dots to every sentence...

Handsome Dan does not currently have a side hustle as the mascot for Yale

*Gladly accepting donations...

1 | 2 | 3